Hi, I'm trying to figure out a solution for RC bug #592242. The short summary of this bug is a package A that conflicts with a package B due to a name clash in /usr/bin. The programs in question do not provide the same functionality, hence the alternatives systems cannot be used. Debian policy 10.1 states:
Two different packages _must not_ install programs with different functionality but with the same filenames. (The case of two programs having the same functionality but different implementations is handled via "alternatives" or the "Conflicts" mechanism...) Since renaming is not an option due to large side-effects in the packages in question, I declared a package conflict between A and B and uploaded a new version. However, various parties expressed their concerns with this "solution". http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2010/08/msg00304.html http://bugs.debian.org/592242 (reopened with reason: "conflicts are not appropriate for conflicts between executable names") IMHO this aspect of policy 10.1 tries to prevent the situation of a user needing the functionality of both packages A and B, but being unable to install them on the same system, solely due to a filename clash. However, the situation of #592242 is different. The package (fsl) that conflicts with other packages (e.g. cyrus-clients-2.2) only installs a number of symlinks to tools of a large analysis suite into /usr/bin. The actual suite is installed by another package (fsl-4.1) that does not conflict with other packages. Hence users will always be able to install this suite in combination with any other package. The only purpose of the conflicting package is to allow for a more convenient out-of-the-box setup for people who run this analysis suite as the primary software in their research labs. If, for some reason, they happen to run any of the conflicting packages they can still use the suite with no drawbacks other than reduced initial setup convenience. Is there something that is intended by policy 10.1 that I am missing? Thanks for your comments, Michael -- GPG key: 1024D/3144BE0F Michael Hanke http://mih.voxindeserto.de -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20100813132017.ga31...@meiner
